Since the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2021, EU residents are required to pay VAT and customs duties charged by the destination county to receive goods imported from the UK.
From the 1st of July 2026 the £135 (€150) de minimis duty exemption will be replaced by a €3 customs charge that will apply to all orders entering the EU regardless of value. This charge will apply to each item in a consignment according to its individual HS classification code (for example, if a package contains a book, a puzzle and a T-shirt, the total duty would be €9).
Despite the inevitable increase in costs for our EU customers, we are working hard to ensure that the ordering process remains as painless as possible. Along with VAT, customs duties and handling fees will be calculated and payable at checkout, so there’ll be no additional requirements or surprise charges to pay to receive your order for most EU countries.
To enable us to collect charges up front, and ensure smooth passage of your parcels into the EU we’ll be utilising Royal Mail’s Postal Delivered Duties Paid (PDDP) service. As of July 1st there will be 19 participating countries, with more hopefully coming on board in the near future.
Unfortunately, this does mean that we are unable to ship to the following destinations for now (but don’t worry, we’ll be working on a solution to resume delivery to these locations as soon as we can!):
France, Italy and Romania have also introduced an additional tax for orders with an item value under £135 (€150):
We currently need to split larger orders due to weight restrictions imposed by the postal service, so please bear in mind that additional duties and handling charges may be levied per package. Please contact us before ordering and we can advise whether your order may be shipped in separate packages.
Our products do not include UK VAT for international customers, so you can be assured that you will not be paying more than you should, and as a literary shop we are happy to report that most EU countries offer greatly reduced rates for books!
However, on your initial visit to our site, prices will be displayed with UK VAT included. To view products without UK VAT please either log in to your account, or enter your delivery address in your basket or at checkout to continue browsing our site with your appropriate prices on display.
PLEASE NOTE: Our orders are sent fully customs compliant, with customs information and declarations provided electronically and on our packages. HOWEVER this does not always prevent customs from issuing erroneous charges. If you believe you have been charged additional fees in error please contact us before paying so we can advise, as once paid these can only be contested with your country’s customs by you.
Finally, we are not experts in global tax charges so for peace of mind we recommend consulting your own country’s government and postal service’s information on import tariffs and fees for receiving goods from the UK!
